Rail tank car

ABSTRACT

A tank car comprises at least two sequentially arranged tanks, connected by a joint assembly and supported at the joint assembly by a common carnage. The distance between the closest points of the two sequentially arranged tanks of the tank car on a straight rail track section is less than 1000 mm. The invention provides increased effective volume of a tank car achieved by decreasing the distance between neighboring tanks.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to Russian. Application No. RU 2014121823 filed May 29, 2014, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to railway transportation vehicles, in particular, to railway tank cars for transporting freight, such as bulk freight, such as powdered freight, granulated freight, or fluid freight, including liquids and liquefied gases.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A four-axle rail lank car for transporting liquefied hydrocarbon gas, commercially available from OAO Ruzkhimmash (Ruzayevsky Zavod Khimicheskogo Mashinostroeniya) is disclosed in <<Reference album: <<Freight train cars for 1520 mm rail track>>. 002E-2006 PKB TSV, 2006, part 2, p. 338, Model 15-1209, Fig. 323.

The length of the prior art rail tank car as measured over coupler pulling faces is 12,020 mm, that is standard for this type of rolling stock, since the car length is defined by a pitch distance of a loading/unloading device for simultaneous loading and unloading a rail car train at conventional loading/unloading terminals. The tank car comprises a tank mounted upon a running gear by means of a car frame, wherein the tank is made of a horizontally arranged vessel comprising a cylindrical shell and two bottom end portions and equipped with loading/unloading means and safety fittings. The inner diameter of the car tank (3,200 mm) is defined by the maximum feasible value for the car to correspond to the dimensions of the rolling stock, and the outer length of the tank (11000 mm) is defined as a maximum value suitable for a standard length measured over coupler pulling faces that provide an effective tank volume of 70.35 m3 with unladen weight of the car of 35.6-37.8 ton and bearing capacity of 51 ton. The distance between the closest points of tank bottom end portions of two coupled model 15-1209 tank cars as measured on a straight rail track section is 1,020 mm.

The disadvantages of the prior art tank car include high empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio of 0.74 and underutilization (94%) of the calculated dead load applied by a wheelset to the rails (23.5 tf) of the running gear used in the prior art car, which results in low tank capacity and decreased technical and economic performance of the prior art tank cars.

Another prior art tank car, Model 15-1229, commercially available from OAO Ruzkhimmash, can he used for transporting propane fractions, butane fractions and mixtures thereof. This technical solution is aimed at increasing the effective volume of a car tank up to 82.18 m3, and consequently, increasing carrying capacity of the car up to 53.5 ton and increasing the effective ratio of calculated dead load applied by a wheelset to the rails up to 100%. This prior art technical solution provides an increase in tank length by increasing linear dimensions of the tank car, in particular the wheelbase and the length measured over coupler pulling faces.

The disadvantages of prior art railway tank cars include relatively long time required for loading/unloading of the tank car with the length measured over coupler pulling faces increased to 15280 mm at conventional terminals equipped with loading/unloading devices with a pitch distance of 12020 mm, used for simultaneous loading or unloading a car train. Furthermore, the prior art tank cars have a relatively high unladen weight of the tank car up to 38.8-40.4 ton, and consequently, high empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio to 0.76.

An attempt to increasing the effective volume or cargo capacity of a car tank for transporting light petroleum products without altering loading length of the car in the car train is disclosed in Utility Model “Tank Car With Two Tanks”, RU111500, publ. 20.12.2011. According to this technical solution, a rail car comprises two tanks with loading/unloading equipment, said tanks fixedly mounted on four hall-frames mounted on four carriages, wherein each tank is formed by a horizontal vessel consisting of two bottom end portions and a cylindrical shell formed by five shell sections, wherein the middle half-frames are connected by a rigid, gapless, integral coupling, while the overhang shell sections are extended towards the coupling by 400 to 1100 mm.

In view of the above, the known prior art technical solutions fail to provide the desired increase in effective tank volume and carrying capacity of a rail tank car for transporting fluid freight, such as liquefied carbon gases, wherein the increase is defined based on the condition of full use of calculated dead load applied by a wheel set to the rails.

The object of the present invention is to overcome these and other disadvantages of the prior art tank cars and increase technical and economic performance of a tank car by lowering the empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio of a tank car and providing a solution wherein the gross weight of the car meets the condition of full use of calculated dead load applied by a wheel set to the rails.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This and another objects are achieved by providing a tank car comprising at least two tanks mounted on a frame, and wherein adjacent frames of the two sequentially arranged tanks are connected by a joint assembly and supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage, and wherein the distance between the closest points of the two sequentially arranged tanks of the tank car on a straight rail track section is less than 1000 mm. The frame can be a frame section or a half-frame.

Advantageously, the present invention provides increased effective volume of the space between sequentially arranged tanks of a tank car by decreasing the distance between bottom end portions of two neighboring tanks.

The inventive tank car overcomes the disadvantages in conventional commercially available tank cars, in particular, the present tank car provides:

an increased tank length in a direction towards the joint assembly, thus increasing the effective volume (carrying capacity) of the tanks;

the gross weight of the car meeting the condition of full use of the calculated dead load applied by a wheel set to the rails, while retaining the possibility of unimpeded fee loading/unloading of a car train at terminals;

a reduced unladen weight of the car train compared to unladen weight of a train of identical length composed of several conventional tank cars;

a reduced empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio.

Therefore, the present invention provides a significant increase in technical and economic performance of a rail tank car.

It shall be appreciated that the invention can be used with any types of rail car tanks, which are commercially available and suitable for transporting bulk and/or fluid freight. In particular, rail tanks described in the above mentioned Reference album <<Freight train cars for 1520 mm rail track>>, 2006, part 2, p. 338, Model 15-1209, Fig. 323, or any other rail car tanks can be used.

Further, a rail tank can be formed as a vessel consisting of a cylindrical shell and two bottom end portions, or as an integral vessel of any other shape, or in any other suitable form.

In one embodiment of the invention, the adjacent frame sections or half-frames of the at least two sequentially arranged tanks are directly supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage.

In another embodiment of the invention, the adjacent frame sections or half-frames of the at least two sequentially arranged tanks are indirectly supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage.

In one embodiment, the joint assembly is a hinge joint assembly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing FIG. 1 showing an embodiment of the present tank car for transporting bulk freight such as powdered freight, granulated freight, or fluid freight, including liquids and liquefied gases.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is described with, reference to FIG. 1, which shows a perspective view of a tank car according to one embodiment of the invention. The tank car according to the illustrated embodiment comprises two tanks 1 for receiving the transported freight, wherein each tank is formed by a vessel consisting of a shell and two bottom end portions 2, and is mounted on two frame sections 3.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, two adjacent frame sections 3 of the sequentially arranged tanks of the tank car are connected by a hinge joint assembly, and supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage 4 via the joint assembly and side supports, i.e. indirectly.

The distance Ld between the closest points of mutually facing bottom end portions of the adjacent tanks of the tank car on a straight rail track section is less than 1000 mm. The tank car includes two or more tanks 1 mounted on frame sections 3 in succession. The end frame sections are placed on individual carriages, whereas the two adjacent frame sections 3 are placed on the common carriage 4. Then the adjacent frame sections 3 are connected by means of a hinge joint assembly.

Advantageously, the present invention provides an articulated car with two or more tanks, wherein each car consists of two sections supported by three two-axle carriages. In this case, the car length measured over coupler pulling faces (24040 mm) and the distance between loading/unloading fittings of the tanks (12020 mm) correspond to the parameters of two conventional tank cars, thus permitting loading/unloading procedures at conventional terminals. In this arrangement, the distance between tank bottom end portions can be reduced e.g., to 300 mm by using the space above the hinge joint assembly of the car sections. As result, the effective volume of each tank can be increased up to 73,9 m3, allowing to load 44.65 ton of liquefied hydrocarbon gas therein, with the unladen mass of the car of 57.3-60.7 ton. Thus, the carrying capacity of the car is 89.3 ton, and the gross weight of the car (150.0 ton) provides full use of the calculated dead load applied by a wheelset to the rails (25.0 tf). The empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio is reduced by 8.1% compared to the empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio of a conventional tank car model 15-1209; the empty weight-to-carrying capacity ratio value of the present tank car is 0.68.

Therefore, the present tank car structure provides a significant increase in the effective tank volume by utilizing the space above the joint assembly between car sections. Further, advantageously, according to the present invention, the gross weight of the car meets the condition of full use of the calculated dead load applied by a wheelset to the rails. 

1. A tank car comprising: at least two sequentially arranged tanks, wherein each tank is mounted on a frame, and wherein adjacent frames of the at least two sequentially arranged tanks are connected by a joint assembly and supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage, and wherein the distance between the closest points of the two sequentially arranged tanks of the tank car on a straight rail track section is less than 1000 mm.
 2. The tank car according to claim 1, wherein the frame of each tank car consists of two adjacent frame sections or two half-frames.
 3. The tank car according to claim 2, wherein the adjacent frame sections or half-frames of the two sequentially arranged tanks are supported directly at the joint assembly by a common carriage directly.
 4. The tank car according to claim 2, wherein the adjacent frame sections or half-frames of the two sequentially arranged tanks are supported at the joint assembly by a common carriage indirectly, via the joint assembly and side supports.
 5. The tank car according to claim 1, wherein the joint assembly is a hinge joint assembly.
 6. The tank car according to claim 1, wherein the tank is formed by a vessel consisting of a shell and two bottom end portions.
 7. The tank car according to claim 6, wherein the closest points of the two sequentially arranged tanks are measured between the mutually facing bottom end portions of adjacent tanks. 